4 ICSA TODAY
SPECIAL REPORTS
Note:
References for specific sources cited in Special Reports are
available at icsahome.com/elibrary/icsatoday/references
Report From France and French-Speaking Countries
Catherine Perry
The Loss of MIVILUDES and Controversies Around
Anthroposophy in France
In 1996, the Interministerial Observatory on Cults (Observatoire
interministériel sur les sectes) was established in France. By
presidential decree in November 2002, this agency was
reorganized and attached to the Prime Minister under the
acronym MIVILUDES (Mission interministérielle de vigilance et
de lutte contre les dérives sectaires). The agency’s task has been
to observe, analyze, and combat cultic abuses, in addition to
informing the public and coordinating aid to victims, whose
number is estimated to be at least 500,000.1 The agency
has been run by approximately fifteen interdisciplinary
professionals in the fields of education, health, law, and finance
it also has benefitted from partners in other ministries and a
large network of regional correspondents.
A first harbinger of potential troubles for the agency came
in October 2018, when Serge Blisko, president of MIVILUDES
since August 2012, was not replaced after he retired. Then, on
October 1, 2019, the government announced that MIVILUDES
would be dissolved on January 1, 2020, and merged with the
CIPDR, the Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of
Delinquency and Radicalization (Comité interministériel de
prévention de la délinquance et de la radicalisation), which is
attached to the Ministry of the Interior. Only three to four
officers will remain in the merged organization, and it will
operate with diminished resources.2 The government argues
that this change was prompted by budgetary and restructuring
obligations. But, according to Georges Fenech, president of
MIVILUDES from 2008 to 2012, this decision is “a catastrophe,”
which “has terrible consequences. [MIVILUDES] was envied
by the whole world.”3 Fenech also stated that “[t]his is not
a reorganization it’s a disappearance” resulting from an
“irresponsible” decision by the French government.4
Fenech’s assessment is not without merit. By integrating into
the CIPDR, MIVILUDES will no longer concentrate on cults as
its specific tasks will be absorbed into the fight against Islamic
terrorism. The government’s decision may well reflect an
increasing concern over the dangers of radicalization, which
implies that radicalization has a greater impact on society than
do cultic abuses. Charline Delporte, president of CAFFES, or
the National Center of Family Support and Education against
Cultic Influence (Centre national d’accompagnement familial et
de formation face à l’emprise sectaire), recently observed that
“[t]he fight against cultic abuses is no longer very important in
the eyes of the government,” adding that, “[s]ince 2012, terrorist
attacks have displaced the cursor toward radical Islam, and
we have become secondary.”5 Moreover, Delporte regrets the
impending loss of MIVILUDES’ diversity, as only the policing
division will be left.6
Controversies Around Anthroposophy
There have been some accusatory exchanges in recent French
publications regarding Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner, and
Waldorf Schools. Founded in 1912 with the Austrian thinker
and mystic Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) at its center, the
Anthroposophical Society is a worldwide spiritual, occultist,
philosophical, and social movement that also influences
agriculture, banks, medicine, health products, and at least
1,850 kindergartens and 1,100 schools, called Steiner-Waldorf
schools.7
In his long article for Le Monde diplomatique in July 2018, the
journalist Jean-Baptiste Malet has implied, although he doesn’t
provide hard evidence, that Françoise Nyssen, the former
director of the publishing house Actes Sud, and Minister of
Culture from May 2017 to October 2018, is associated with
Anthroposophy.8 In 2015, according to Malet, Nyssen and
her husband established in Arles what amounts to a Steiner-
Waldorf school, Le Domaine du possible. Though not officially
part of the Steiner-Waldorf educational system, this school was
under the leadership of Henri Dahan, Chief Delegate of the
Federation of Steiner-Waldorf Schools in France until he was
fired from Le Domaine in July 2018. As a student at this school
remarked, “[our] professors say that this isn’t a Steiner school,
but it’s 100% Steiner.”9
Especially in France, which promotes laïcité, or secularism,
Anthroposophy is often considered a cult, even though it
is not officially categorized as such.10 For instance, Nyssen’s
husband, Jean-Paul Capitani, explained that their school’s lack
of denomination resulted from the fact that “in France there are
too many prejudices against spiritualism and against Steiner in
particular.”11 In other words, these schools’ alternative pedagogy
leads to suspicions that they practice a covert proselytism,
and possibly mind control. Before Nyssen’s governmental
appointment in 2017, MIVILUDES was investigating alleged
abuses in Anthroposophical education and medicine. After
Nyssen’s appointment, MIVILUDES ceased its research. In the
words of its former president Serge Blisko, “the Prime Minister’s
cabinet” recommended that MIVILUDES “remain in stand-by” on
the sensitive issue of Anthroposophy.12
NEWS DESK
SPECIAL REPORTS AND NEWS SUMMARIES
VOLUME 11 |ISSUE 1 |2020
Although it remains unclear whether Steiner-Waldorf schools
hide cultic abuses—as other denominational schools can—in
France there have been legal inquiries into some of these
schools. The most recent and noteworthy case implicates a
former Steiner-Waldorf student and Anthroposophist, Grégoire
Perra, who taught philosophy for 4 years in the Steiner-Waldorf
school of Chatou. He resigned from his position in 2007 and
subsequently broke with the French Anthroposophical Society.
In an October 2019 interview, Perra disclosed, “Because I
left this cult on my own, I know it’s not easy. To leave the
nebula of Anthroposophy, when you have built your life
there, is such a nightmare that victims often have trouble
understanding their past.”13 In 2011, he published an article
critiquing Steiner-Waldorf schools for indoctrinating students
to Anthroposophy.14 In 2013, he created a blog, “The Truth
about Steiner-Waldorf Schools and Anthroposophy” (La vérité
sur les écoles Steiner-Waldorf et l’Anthroposophie), in which he
has extensively accused the Steiner-Waldorf pedagogy and
also Anthroposophical medicine for abusive practices.15 So far,
Perra’s writings have triggered three lawsuits: from the Steiner-
Waldorf School Federation, Anthroposophist medical doctors,
and a Waldorf teacher.16 A judgment on 24 May 2013 acquitted
him and the publisher of his 2011 article for good faith.17 A
more recent judgment, on 1 October 2019, also cleared him.18
Grégoire Perra’s accusations have elicited support but also
criticism from scholars of Anthroposophy and the Steiner-
Waldorf system of education. Maria Noland, PhD candidate in
Anthropology and Education at Columbia University, reached
opposite conclusions to Perra’s after studying the Steiner-
Waldorf method of education and corresponding with Perra.19
Chantal Lapointe, in her 2017 doctoral dissertation on Steiner’s
Pedagogy, denounces Perra for being animated by a desire
for revenge 20 it should be noted, however, that Lapointe is a
member of the Canadian Anthroposophical Society.21 Other
scholars do not detect abuses in the Steiner-Waldorf method
of education. See, for instance, Loïc Chalmel,22 or Heiner
Ulrich. who stated in a recent interview with Die Zeit that
“Anthroposophy is not taught in Waldorf schools.”23 In July
2019, the journalist Martin Bernard, who was partly raised in a
Steiner-Waldorf school, revealed documents alleging that Perra
made sexual advances to a 17-year-old female student and
therefore was probably asked to resign from the school where
he taught.24 In one of his blog articles, Perra blames the student
for having attempted to seduce him.25 Whatever the merits of
his insights into current Anthroposophical practices may be,
Perra’s motivations are unclear, and associated controversies
will likely persist.
Report From Poland
Poitr T. Nowakowski
As a consequence of the Parliamentary election held in
Poland on 13 October 2019, Jacek Bury, representing Koalicja
Obywatelska (“Civic Coalition”), the main opposition party,
gained a Senate seat in Lublin. However, some controversies
have arisen around Bury’s past. “The new senator of Koalicja
Obywatelska from Lublin was a co-founder of a community
that has a reputation of a cult,” wrote the nationwide daily
Rzeczpospolita. This reference is about Kościół Nowego
Przymierza (KNP “The Church of New Covenant”), whose
members describe themselves as biblical Christians. The
church’s leader, Pastor Paweł Chojecki, is known from his
Internet television network program, Idź Pod Prąd (“Against the
Tide”), available through YouTube.
For some years, the program’s regular commentator was a
far-right activist, Marian Kowalski, who wrote after leaving the
program in 2018 that “KNP gradually but effectively isolates
its members from families and acquaintances from outside
the group these people are being deprived of privacy and
are subjected to permanent control. Eavesdropping and
denunciatory activities are a daily occurrence.”
The senator-elect has a similar opinion. “It [KNP] is de facto
a cult. Manipulating people, hooking them on the group,
monopoly on the truth, monopoly on decisions: These are
features of a cult,” enumerates Bury as quoted by the daily.
How did Bury become involved in KNP? There were things in
the organization of the Catholic Church he couldn’t accept, so
he started to “seek the truth” in a somewhat broader context.
In this way, he got to know all protestant churches, including
that of Paweł Chojecki. While studying, both men established
Wspólnota Chrześcijańską Pojednanie (“Christian Community
Reconciliation”). Bury also confirmed that his name appeared
later, in the registration documents of KNP in 1997 however, he
points out that he left the community after some months when
he realized that it had taken on the traits of a cult.
Chojecki presents a slightly different history of the mutual
relationship. According to him, even though Senator Bury was
a member of KNP for about a year, they collaborated closely
in one of the communities for 11 years. Chojecki added that
Bury was an important figure in KNP and “belonged to a group
of decision makers.” Chojecki’s television program alleges that
Bury “ostentatiously distorts the reality” by marginalizing a
long-time collaboration. The pastor finds accusations of the
church being a cult deeply unfair. “For many people in Poland,
membership in a non-Catholic Church equals cultic affiliation,”
he argues.
Report From Spain and Latin America
Luis Santamaría
Translated by Erika Toren and John Paul Lennon
Groups of Asian Origin
In August 2019, Uruguay’s Department of Organized Crime
decided to shelve the prosecutor’s petition to investigate a
yoga teacher for an alleged human-trafficking case. The name
of the accused is Octav Fercheluc, the manager at the Academia
de Yoga Tradicional Ananda in Montevideo, an affiliate of the
Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute (MISA,
Romanian acronym). The complaint that originated the petition
stated that Fercheluc was preparing a trip with four students to
2527
SPECIAL REPORTS
Note:
References for specific sources cited in Special Reports are
available at icsahome.com/elibrary/icsatoday/references
Report From France and French-Speaking Countries
Catherine Perry
The Loss of MIVILUDES and Controversies Around
Anthroposophy in France
In 1996, the Interministerial Observatory on Cults (Observatoire
interministériel sur les sectes) was established in France. By
presidential decree in November 2002, this agency was
reorganized and attached to the Prime Minister under the
acronym MIVILUDES (Mission interministérielle de vigilance et
de lutte contre les dérives sectaires). The agency’s task has been
to observe, analyze, and combat cultic abuses, in addition to
informing the public and coordinating aid to victims, whose
number is estimated to be at least 500,000.1 The agency
has been run by approximately fifteen interdisciplinary
professionals in the fields of education, health, law, and finance
it also has benefitted from partners in other ministries and a
large network of regional correspondents.
A first harbinger of potential troubles for the agency came
in October 2018, when Serge Blisko, president of MIVILUDES
since August 2012, was not replaced after he retired. Then, on
October 1, 2019, the government announced that MIVILUDES
would be dissolved on January 1, 2020, and merged with the
CIPDR, the Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of
Delinquency and Radicalization (Comité interministériel de
prévention de la délinquance et de la radicalisation), which is
attached to the Ministry of the Interior. Only three to four
officers will remain in the merged organization, and it will
operate with diminished resources.2 The government argues
that this change was prompted by budgetary and restructuring
obligations. But, according to Georges Fenech, president of
MIVILUDES from 2008 to 2012, this decision is “a catastrophe,”
which “has terrible consequences. [MIVILUDES] was envied
by the whole world.”3 Fenech also stated that “[t]his is not
a reorganization it’s a disappearance” resulting from an
“irresponsible” decision by the French government.4
Fenech’s assessment is not without merit. By integrating into
the CIPDR, MIVILUDES will no longer concentrate on cults as
its specific tasks will be absorbed into the fight against Islamic
terrorism. The government’s decision may well reflect an
increasing concern over the dangers of radicalization, which
implies that radicalization has a greater impact on society than
do cultic abuses. Charline Delporte, president of CAFFES, or
the National Center of Family Support and Education against
Cultic Influence (Centre national d’accompagnement familial et
de formation face à l’emprise sectaire), recently observed that
“[t]he fight against cultic abuses is no longer very important in
the eyes of the government,” adding that, “[s]ince 2012, terrorist
attacks have displaced the cursor toward radical Islam, and
we have become secondary.”5 Moreover, Delporte regrets the
impending loss of MIVILUDES’ diversity, as only the policing
division will be left.6
Controversies Around Anthroposophy
There have been some accusatory exchanges in recent French
publications regarding Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner, and
Waldorf Schools. Founded in 1912 with the Austrian thinker
and mystic Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) at its center, the
Anthroposophical Society is a worldwide spiritual, occultist,
philosophical, and social movement that also influences
agriculture, banks, medicine, health products, and at least
1,850 kindergartens and 1,100 schools, called Steiner-Waldorf
schools.7
In his long article for Le Monde diplomatique in July 2018, the
journalist Jean-Baptiste Malet has implied, although he doesn’t
provide hard evidence, that Françoise Nyssen, the former
director of the publishing house Actes Sud, and Minister of
Culture from May 2017 to October 2018, is associated with
Anthroposophy.8 In 2015, according to Malet, Nyssen and
her husband established in Arles what amounts to a Steiner-
Waldorf school, Le Domaine du possible. Though not officially
part of the Steiner-Waldorf educational system, this school was
under the leadership of Henri Dahan, Chief Delegate of the
Federation of Steiner-Waldorf Schools in France until he was
fired from Le Domaine in July 2018. As a student at this school
remarked, “[our] professors say that this isn’t a Steiner school,
but it’s 100% Steiner.”9
Especially in France, which promotes laïcité, or secularism,
Anthroposophy is often considered a cult, even though it
is not officially categorized as such.10 For instance, Nyssen’s
husband, Jean-Paul Capitani, explained that their school’s lack
of denomination resulted from the fact that “in France there are
too many prejudices against spiritualism and against Steiner in
particular.”11 In other words, these schools’ alternative pedagogy
leads to suspicions that they practice a covert proselytism,
and possibly mind control. Before Nyssen’s governmental
appointment in 2017, MIVILUDES was investigating alleged
abuses in Anthroposophical education and medicine. After
Nyssen’s appointment, MIVILUDES ceased its research. In the
words of its former president Serge Blisko, “the Prime Minister’s
cabinet” recommended that MIVILUDES “remain in stand-by” on
the sensitive issue of Anthroposophy.12
NEWS DESK
SPECIAL REPORTS AND NEWS SUMMARIES
VOLUME 11 |ISSUE 1 |2020
Although it remains unclear whether Steiner-Waldorf schools
hide cultic abuses—as other denominational schools can—in
France there have been legal inquiries into some of these
schools. The most recent and noteworthy case implicates a
former Steiner-Waldorf student and Anthroposophist, Grégoire
Perra, who taught philosophy for 4 years in the Steiner-Waldorf
school of Chatou. He resigned from his position in 2007 and
subsequently broke with the French Anthroposophical Society.
In an October 2019 interview, Perra disclosed, “Because I
left this cult on my own, I know it’s not easy. To leave the
nebula of Anthroposophy, when you have built your life
there, is such a nightmare that victims often have trouble
understanding their past.”13 In 2011, he published an article
critiquing Steiner-Waldorf schools for indoctrinating students
to Anthroposophy.14 In 2013, he created a blog, “The Truth
about Steiner-Waldorf Schools and Anthroposophy” (La vérité
sur les écoles Steiner-Waldorf et l’Anthroposophie), in which he
has extensively accused the Steiner-Waldorf pedagogy and
also Anthroposophical medicine for abusive practices.15 So far,
Perra’s writings have triggered three lawsuits: from the Steiner-
Waldorf School Federation, Anthroposophist medical doctors,
and a Waldorf teacher.16 A judgment on 24 May 2013 acquitted
him and the publisher of his 2011 article for good faith.17 A
more recent judgment, on 1 October 2019, also cleared him.18
Grégoire Perra’s accusations have elicited support but also
criticism from scholars of Anthroposophy and the Steiner-
Waldorf system of education. Maria Noland, PhD candidate in
Anthropology and Education at Columbia University, reached
opposite conclusions to Perra’s after studying the Steiner-
Waldorf method of education and corresponding with Perra.19
Chantal Lapointe, in her 2017 doctoral dissertation on Steiner’s
Pedagogy, denounces Perra for being animated by a desire
for revenge 20 it should be noted, however, that Lapointe is a
member of the Canadian Anthroposophical Society.21 Other
scholars do not detect abuses in the Steiner-Waldorf method
of education. See, for instance, Loïc Chalmel,22 or Heiner
Ulrich. who stated in a recent interview with Die Zeit that
“Anthroposophy is not taught in Waldorf schools.”23 In July
2019, the journalist Martin Bernard, who was partly raised in a
Steiner-Waldorf school, revealed documents alleging that Perra
made sexual advances to a 17-year-old female student and
therefore was probably asked to resign from the school where
he taught.24 In one of his blog articles, Perra blames the student
for having attempted to seduce him.25 Whatever the merits of
his insights into current Anthroposophical practices may be,
Perra’s motivations are unclear, and associated controversies
will likely persist.
Report From Poland
Poitr T. Nowakowski
As a consequence of the Parliamentary election held in
Poland on 13 October 2019, Jacek Bury, representing Koalicja
Obywatelska (“Civic Coalition”), the main opposition party,
gained a Senate seat in Lublin. However, some controversies
have arisen around Bury’s past. “The new senator of Koalicja
Obywatelska from Lublin was a co-founder of a community
that has a reputation of a cult,” wrote the nationwide daily
Rzeczpospolita. This reference is about Kościół Nowego
Przymierza (KNP “The Church of New Covenant”), whose
members describe themselves as biblical Christians. The
church’s leader, Pastor Paweł Chojecki, is known from his
Internet television network program, Idź Pod Prąd (“Against the
Tide”), available through YouTube.
For some years, the program’s regular commentator was a
far-right activist, Marian Kowalski, who wrote after leaving the
program in 2018 that “KNP gradually but effectively isolates
its members from families and acquaintances from outside
the group these people are being deprived of privacy and
are subjected to permanent control. Eavesdropping and
denunciatory activities are a daily occurrence.”
The senator-elect has a similar opinion. “It [KNP] is de facto
a cult. Manipulating people, hooking them on the group,
monopoly on the truth, monopoly on decisions: These are
features of a cult,” enumerates Bury as quoted by the daily.
How did Bury become involved in KNP? There were things in
the organization of the Catholic Church he couldn’t accept, so
he started to “seek the truth” in a somewhat broader context.
In this way, he got to know all protestant churches, including
that of Paweł Chojecki. While studying, both men established
Wspólnota Chrześcijańską Pojednanie (“Christian Community
Reconciliation”). Bury also confirmed that his name appeared
later, in the registration documents of KNP in 1997 however, he
points out that he left the community after some months when
he realized that it had taken on the traits of a cult.
Chojecki presents a slightly different history of the mutual
relationship. According to him, even though Senator Bury was
a member of KNP for about a year, they collaborated closely
in one of the communities for 11 years. Chojecki added that
Bury was an important figure in KNP and “belonged to a group
of decision makers.” Chojecki’s television program alleges that
Bury “ostentatiously distorts the reality” by marginalizing a
long-time collaboration. The pastor finds accusations of the
church being a cult deeply unfair. “For many people in Poland,
membership in a non-Catholic Church equals cultic affiliation,”
he argues.
Report From Spain and Latin America
Luis Santamaría
Translated by Erika Toren and John Paul Lennon
Groups of Asian Origin
In August 2019, Uruguay’s Department of Organized Crime
decided to shelve the prosecutor’s petition to investigate a
yoga teacher for an alleged human-trafficking case. The name
of the accused is Octav Fercheluc, the manager at the Academia
de Yoga Tradicional Ananda in Montevideo, an affiliate of the
Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute (MISA,
Romanian acronym). The complaint that originated the petition
stated that Fercheluc was preparing a trip with four students to
2527
